Afghanistan Among the 10 Worst Countries to be a Child

February 16, 2019AfghanistanComments Off on Afghanistan Among the 10 Worst Countries to be a Child127 Views

KABUL – Save the Children International charity said in a report that at least 100,000 babies die every year because of armed conflict and related effects, with Afghanistan listed among the 10 worst countries to be a child.
The report by the organization highlighted, “Children in conflict suffer in different ways from adults; partly, because they are physically feebler and also because they have so much at stake as their physical, mental, and psychosocial development largely depend on the conditions they have to experience as children.”
It also added that in the five years (2013-17) in the 10 worst-hit areas, an estimated 550,000 infants died because of fighting and the “reverberating impact of conflict”.
The 10 worst countries listed by the report include: Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.
“In Afghanistan alone, the UN verified 3,179 child casualties,” it said, referring to data for infants and older children for 2017.
“Many of these incidents involved IEDs and unexploded ordnance, responsible for at least 33 percent of the casualties.”
The deaths in Afghanistan include “children being used to plant bombs and/or to make the attacks themselves,” the report added.
(Sahar News)